Belt-shifter



(No Model.)

' J. M. SAILER.

BELT SHIPTER.

No. 439,692. Patented Nov. 4, 1890.

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIcE.

JOHN M. SAILER, OF MILTON, ASSIGNOR TO JOHN BARLASS AND ROBERT BARLASS, OF JANESVILLE, WISCONSIN.

BELT-SHIFTER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 439,692, dated November 4, 1890.

Application filed February M 1890- Serial No. 341,274. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOHN M. SAILER, of Milton, in the county of Rock and State of Wisconsin, have invented new and useful Improvements in Belt-Shifters; and I do hereby declare the following to a full, clear, and exact description of said invention, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings, and

to the letters of reference marked thereon,

ro which form a part of this specification.

My improved belt-shifter is so constructed and arranged as to shift a belt from one pulley to another alongside by a slight twisting or pushing of the belt by pressing applied thereto on the surface of the belt, whereby wear on the edge of the belt is obviated, the device being at the same time so constructed as to serve for guiding the belt.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is an elevation of myimproved device in connection with a portion of a belt, the device being shown in the position it has when being shifted. Fig. 2 is a top plan View of the same device shown in Fig. 1, but with the belt in a different posi- 2 5 tion. Fig. 3 is a rear view of the device shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a top plan view of a modified form of a portion of my device in connection with a belt adapted to be run on either one of two fast pulleys or an interme- 0 diate loose pulley.

A is the hanger on which my device is supported. Two laterally-extending arms B and O are journaled centrally on the hanger A. At both of the extremities of both of these arms are pivoted pulleys D D and D D, which pulleys are of the same size and form. Their shafts E E andE E are fixed in the arms B and 0, arranged in the same horizontal plane with .the medial longitudinal line of the arms B and C, respectively, but are set at an angle less than a right angle to the arms B and (l, and so that their outer ends are inclined toward each other,being thus also arranged at an angle to the belt that runs between them and 5 onwhich theyare to act. Thepulleys arepractically double pulleys, being each formed with a part F of greater diameter and a part Gof lesser diameter, the length of each part being a little more than the width of the belt in connection with which the pulley is to be used. The difference in the diameter of the parts F and G is preferably somewhat more than the thickness of the belt to be used in connection therewith. The pulleys D D at one extremity of the arms 13 and C are arranged with their parts F F of greater diameter at the inner ends of the shafts E E, and the pulleys D D at the other extremities of the arms B and'O are arranged with their partsF F of greater diameter outwardly away from the arms B and 0, thus reversing the arrangement of the pulleys in sets. The belt H runs in the direction indicated by the arrow on a pulley I, and the belt-shifter is so located and arranged that the belt will run between the pulleys on the arm B and the pulleys on the arm 0.

In Fig. 1 the belt H is shown as running near to the hanger A, and between the parts F F of greater diameter of the pulleys D D l at the right of the arms Band 0, which are shown as thrown toward each other against the belt, in which relation the belt will be twisted or bent, as shown, and will be automatically carried outwardly away from the hanger by its own motion in the direction of the arrow until it passes beyond the peripheries of the parts F F, where it will run between the parts G G of lesser diameter, but without touching them other than merely to possibly hit one or the other of them momentarily if being slightly loose on its carrying-pulleys. When it is desired to shift the belt again inwardly toward the hanger, the arms 13 and C are tilted in the other direction, 8 5 so as to cause the parts F F of greater diameter of the pulleys D D to bear against the belt, when by reason of the angle of these pulleys the belt will be twisted in the reverse direction from thatshown in Fig.1, and the belt 0 will be carried inwardly beyond the peripheries of the parts F F of the pulleys D D. -When the belt is running opposite the parts G G of lesser diameter of either sets of the pulleys, the pulleys are preferably so ad'- justed in position that the belt cannot shift laterally without engaging the edges of the adjacent parts F F, whereby the pulley is guided in its line and is kept from shifting in that direction.

For conveniently tilting the arms 13 and C a crank K is fixed on the journal of the arm 0, which crank projects upwardly, and its wrist enters a slot L in a lever-handle M,

fixed on the journal of the shaft B. The lever-handle M extends downwardly, and the slot L is located medially between the jour; nals of the arms 13 and 0, whereby by the swinging of the lever-handle M laterally the arms B and C are correspondingly and concurrently tilted.

As belts are usually spliced or laced together, as shown at N, forming a greater thickness than the principal part of the belt,

15 there would be some shock to the shifting de vice and to the machinery when this splicing or lacing passes the two pulleys of the shifting device when they bear against it if they were located exactly opposite each other,

and to obviate such shock or strain I preferably make one of the arms, as B, longer than the arm 0 and locate the shafts E E a little farther apart than the shafts E E are, whereby the bearings of the pulleys D D or D D against the belt are not directly opposite each other, but are so arranged that a splice or lacing in its travel would pass one of the pulleys against which it bears before it passes the other pulley against which it bears on the 0 other side.

In Fig. l a modified form of device is shown in part, in which the shifting-pulleys S are formed in three parts 0, O, and 0, having three different diameters, whereby the device is adapted for shifting the belt from a fast pulley P upon a loose pulley R and to a second fast pulley I on the other side of the loose pulley R.

\Vhat I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a belt-shifting device, two tilting arms arranged normally parallel to each other and carrying thereon at both extremities thereof pulleys in sets, having parts of greater and lesser diameters pivoted on shafts fixed in the arms, which shafts are inclined toward each other, substantially as described.

2. In a belt-shifting device, the combination, with tilting-arms provided with shafts, which shafts are fixed therein at an angle less than a right angle to the arms and to the line of motion of an intermediate belt, of two pulleys having parts of greater and lesser diameter located opposite or nearly opposite to each other on the shafts, substantially as described.

3. I11 a belt-shifter, the combination of pulleys having parts of greater and lesser diameter, with shafts fixed at an angle less than a right angle, in a tilting arm on which shafts the pulleys are pivoted, substantially as described.

4. In a belt-shifter, two tilting arms supported normally parallel to each other, in combination with pulleys having parts of 6s greater and lesser diameter pivoted in sets at the extremities of the tilting arms and opposite or nearly opposite each other, the pulleys of one set having their parts of greater diameter at the inner ends of their shafts and the pulleys of the other set having their parts of greater diameter at the outer ends of their shafts, substantially as described.

5. In a belt-shifter, two tilting arms carryingbelt-shifting pulleys thereon at theirouter 7 5 extremities, in combination with a crank fixed on the journal of one arm and a leverhandle fixed 011 the journal of the other arm, the wrist of the crank entering a slot therefor in the lever-handle midway between the two journals, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

JOHN M. SAILER. lVitnesses:

W. H. YATES, INA M. lxnmqv. 

